The 10 Best “Hero RB” Options in 2025

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  • By Nathan Hernandez

    Last Updated on June 26, 2025 11:43 am by Jon Mosales | Published: June 26, 2025

    Among the trendy roster construction strategies in fantasy football drafts is the “Hero RB” or “Anchor RB” approach. Perhaps nothing can get you a better starting point to build from than securing an elite, workhorse running back that can net roughly 20 fantasy points per game. One of the biggest challenges when breaking down running back rankings in the off-season is establishing the different tier breaks between ball-carriers when weighing their floors and ceilings for the upcoming season. In the current state of off-season best ball drafts on Underdog, there are 10 ball-carriers that can classify as Hero-viable RBs, and they’re all often taken in the first two rounds. To me, an anchor RB could be defined as one that could potentially find any realistic avenue to an RB1 overall caliber finish on the upcoming season.

    Saquon Barkley – Philadelphia Eagles

    Current ADP 2.9 | 2024 RB1 Overall Finish | 21.2 Half-PPR FPPG

    Saquon ran wild in his first year as a Philadelphia Eagle, helping thrust the offense to the next level en route to a Super Bowl victory and his entrance to the 2,000-yard rushing club in an outstanding 2025 season. He eclipsed it narrowly with 2,005 yards in 16 games to go with 33 catches, 278 receiving yards and 15 total touchdowns. He did a great job at taking care of the football, only turning the ball over once on the year. The Eagles lost their offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to the Saints as he assumes their head coaching vacancy, while Philadelphia will also attempt to replace the towering G Mekhi Becton, who signed a multi-year dear to join the Los Angeles Chargers. The Eagles have enough depth that they shouldn’t feel his Becton’s absence too heavily, but the promotion of passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo to OC could shift the team a bit more to the passing game in certain scenarios. The Eagles ran the ball a whopping 56.3% of the time, a massive outlier, as 29-of-31 other teams opted to call a run for less than 50% of their plays on the season. Even if he loses some volume to the Eagles’ aerial attack, Barkley is still likely the favorite to be the RB1 overall again in 2025.

    Bijan Robinson – Atlanta Falcons

    in Current ADP 3.7 | 2024 RB4 Overall Finish | 18.3 Half-PPR FPPG

    After a bit of a mediocre start to the season, Bijan Robinson absolutely torched the turf in the back half of 2024, finishing as the RB1 in FPPG from Week 6 to the end of the season, averaging 21.1 half-PPR FPPG across those 12 games. He was an excellent dual-threat RB, catching 61 passes on the year, finishing third among RBs in receptions and second in overall touches. He was also tied for the fifth-most rushing TDs, with 14 in 17 games. In three games with Michael Penix under center towards the end of the season, Robinson averaged 25.6 FPPG in that span, which should be another sign of encouragement for his potential usage across a season with the second-year QB running the offense. Atlanta had a 45.6% run play rate on the season, but across the three games with Penix, they jumped up to an average of 49%, which would’ve been good for the fifth-highest rate in the NFL in 2024. The Falcons offensive line was a successful unit in 2024, helping Bijan get up to 4.8 YPC and netting the second-highest RBWR in the NFL last year at roughly 74%. They lost their starting center, though, and made no significant additions this off-season, but hopefully they are able to find a similar success on the ground with a new snapper on the line.


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    June 26, 2025, 11:43 am